


Life Flashing

by purajobot935



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Angst and Humor, Battlefield, Canonical Character Death, Coping, Gen, Goodbyes, Memories, POV First Person, Sacrifice, Those Left Behind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-01
Updated: 2012-10-01
Packaged: 2017-11-15 10:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/526366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purajobot935/pseuds/purajobot935
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Events of the 2007 Movie as told through Jazz's optics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mechs on the Moon

I was bored.

Space was getting seriously dull. I couldn’t sit still any longer and resorted to pacing within a small section of the territory we’d temporarily claimed. Temporary, heh. It was starting to feel more like an eternity. Any longer up here and we may as well colonize the place, I thought to myself. 

Of course, with that thought came the realization that we’d need the Allspark to do it, which brought me back to why we were holed up here in the first place.

What was taking Bumblebee so long anyway?

A dull vibration shook the ground and I looked up to see Ironhide blasting a few new craters into the already pock-marked landscape. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one getting impatient with the whole situation. Some distance away, Ratchet looked up from where he was having a bit of a discussion with Optimus Prime, and both of them frowned in his direction.

Gotta give credit to the old warrior; he frowned right back at them, smoking cannons and all.

“How much longer are we going to be stuck up here while the Decepticons are busy having a party down there on the planet?” he asked.

“We have to give Bumblebee time,” Optimus tried to explain to him for what was probably the hundredth time since we touched down on the satellite that orbited our target planet.

“If we go down prematurely, we may end up causing a panic amongst the dominant carbon-based lifeforms. They are not all mentally capable of comprehending beings like us, and mass hysteria may only serve to complicate the finding of the Allspark,” Ratchet reasoned. “Let the scout do his job and report back first.”

“And what if he doesn’t?” I found myself asking. “What if he ran into the Decepticons again, or worse?”

Optimus looked at me for a moment and I could tell he was weighing his options. I knew it wasn’t an easy choice for him. Bumblebee was an important part of our little team, and more importantly, he was my friend. I didn’t want him to think that we felt he couldn’t do his job, but I didn’t want t’see him get hurt either. Bot’d already been through enough.

“We’ll give him one more of this planet’s axial rotation,” Optimus said at last. “If he hasn’t given us the signal by the end of it, we’ll have to assume the worst and go down ourselves.”

Both Ratchet and Ironhide nodded at that.

“Fine by me,” I said. 

And it was. He’d reached a good compromise. Now all we had to do was get through this last rotation without Ironhide blowing something up and either way we’d be going planet-side.

“Good call, Optimus,” I said as I passed him.

“Thank you, Jazz,” he replied.

I wandered off to another part of the satellite, one with a good view of that mostly-blue alien planet. What was it like down there, I wondered. What kind of civilization did those dominant life-forms have? Were they a primitive race? Were they even capable of proper speech patterns?

Ratchet came and stood beside me, but his attention was fixed on some type of mechanical contraption that hovered over part of the planet.

“Interesting,” he murmured. “The creatures are at least intelligent enough to construct artificial satellites and launch them into orbit. I believe they may be primitive enough for us to tap into and obtain some vital information.”

His optics glazed over and flickered as he proceeded to do just that. I could just about see all the pages and pages of information flashing across his lenses, but tempting as the offer was, I just couldn’t bring myself to join him right away.

“What if there are things we’re not meant to know?” I asked him. “Personal information and the like?”

“I’m taking nothing that intrudes on any specific individual’s privacy,” he replied. “Besides, don’t you want to know about the abundant wealth of cultures the planet’s life-forms seem to possess?”

That did me in. Of course I wanted to know. We had just about lost ours, and to finally discover a new civilization with various cultures of their own was too much for me to resist. I HAD to know. Quickly I tapped into the primitive device and began to browse.

The dominant life-forms, I found out, were called ‘humans’, sentient like us, but biological instead of mechanical, and incredibly diverse. They all looked the same on a basic molecular level, but that was where the similarities ended. Their lifestyles differed from group to group across the entire planet, and each group had their own customs and traditions that made up hundreds of different cultures.

I hated Ratchet. I hated him for talking me into doing this – it only served to make me even more impatient to get down there and check the place out. I shot him a dirty look, but he simply chuckled and walked over to where Ironhide was, probably to do the same thing to him.

“I take it Ratchet introduced you to what the humans call the ‘Internet’?” Optimus asked from behind me.

I turned to look at him. “You already knew,” I said. “About their information systems.” It wasn’t a question.

“How else do you think we managed to find out about where the map to the Allspark was? We would never have sent Bumblebee otherwise.” He chuckled, too.

“Could’ve told me sooner.” I crossed my arms.

“I’m sorry, but would it have eased your restlessness?”

“Probably not,” I admitted.

If anything, I knew it would have made me more impatient than I already was. Didn’t mean I wasn’t going to hurt Ratchet for this though, I was – provided Ironhide hadn’t already beaten me to it.

… … At last the signal came. It wasn’t much, just a small glowing outline of our race’s symbol barely managing to break the light mass of clouds, but it was enough. I looked at Optimus, waiting for him to give the word, but he seemed deep in thought. His optics flickered now and then as he gazed intently at the planet, obviously weighing something up in his processor. I shifted a little. So did Ratchet. Ironhide’s fingers twitched.

“Why are we delaying?” he asked finally.

“The planet’s rotation has moved our landing co-ordinates closer towards the star it orbits,” Optimus explained.

I got it then.

“Which means we’d have to chase after it. Not only that, the human inhabitants tend to be more active in the daylight hours, and in the light, there’s a much higher chance of being spotted – not just by the humans, but maybe by the Decepticons as well.”

“Exactly,” Optimus said. “We must keep human involvement in this matter down to a minimum.”

“So, more waiting then?” Ironhide asked.

“Just a little longer,” Optimus told him.

Ironhide couldn’t resist a little good-natured grumbling.

Ratchet slapped a hand down on his back. “Oh come on. You’ve waited this long, what’s half a rotation going to do?”

“My cannons are getting rusty,” the old warrior muttered.

“Bah, you and rust,” Ratchet shot back. “Are you sure you don’t have rust in your processor? Perhaps I should give you a check-up, just to be sure.”

Ironhide looked both scandalized and indignant. “You keep your crazy gizmos away from me,” he retorted, batting at Ratchet’s hands and walking off

Ratchet started after him. “Here! Wait a moment. Come back! This is a medical order!”

Optimus and I watched them go. “When all this is over you’re going to have to give them a holiday away from each other,” I said.

“If they don’t dismantle each other first,” Optimus replied.

“They wont. You’d never let them go that far,” I told him.

“No. I probably wouldn’t.” He looked at me. “We’ve all come so far, and such a long way from Cybertron. I’d hate to lose any of you now, but with Megatron on that planet…” He trailed off for a moment and sighed.

I placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry about it, Optimus.”

“If the worst should happen and we have to battle Megatron, I don’t want any of you to face him. That’s an order, Jazz. He would destroy you all. Leave him to me.”

I nodded. “You got it.”

I knew where he was coming from. We’d already seen what Megatron did to Bumblebee, and there was no way I was ever going to put my friends in that kind of danger. Optimus was right. He was the only one who stood a chance of going up against Megatron and making out alive. Megatron was a mean fragger, and not the kind of mech you wanted to mess with.

My thoughts were somewhat rudely interrupted by Ironhide who had managed to double back towards us and was now insisting that Optimus order Ratchet to stay away from him. Ratchet himself was not far behind, and brandishing one of his cutting tools. Chuckling to myself I went over to help Optimus deal with the feuding pair.


	2. What do you call a Protoform Autobot?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ans: Naked.

Finally we assembled together at our designated launching point. If we timed it just right, the planet’s own gravitational field would pull us directly over where we had to land, saving us a whole lot of energy in the process. Optimus turned to face us.

“The time has come,” he said. “Bumblebee’s already broadcasting a homing signal. Once we launch, there’s no knowing how strong the gravitational pull will be. If we are separated, scan a suitable disguise and head towards Bumblebee’s signal. He’s our anchor point.” He turned away then and I knew what was coming next. “Autobots, blast off!”

I took up point behind him as we launched from the satellite and transformed into our protoform modes, necessary for planetary entry as they shielded our bodies from the intense heat and the force of impact.

As we neared our target trajectory, I felt a strong tug pulling me faster and faster towards the planet. I struggled to maintain the same course as Optimus, but it seemed that gravity was too strong. A quick check with the others told me they were having problems steering as well – the pull was much stronger than any of us had expected, and trying to go against it would only burn out systems already heated by the planet’s atmospheric gases. The only option was to just go with the pull. So I did.

Before I knew it, I’d cleared the stratosphere and started to hurtle towards the ground below. Just because this protoform mode could withstand high-impact landings didn’t mean I like experiencing them, so as I continued to plummet, I quickly scanned for anything in the immediate vicinity that would provide a comparatively softer landing than what I’d identified as tar and concrete. I brought my steering systems online in a hurry and aimed for a spot whose molecular structure looked a little more forgiving. Then I braced for impact.

Clouds of dust rose up where I hit and I groaned. I really did hate landings. No matter how cushioned you were, they always tended to jar a few systems out of alignment. Luckily it was all superficial and it didn’t take me too long to set them right. With everything in proper working order, I allowed myself to transform and stood up.

Light shone down on me from every direction and I looked around a little startled. Had we mis-timed the launch and landed in daylight? I sprinted out of the small crater I’d made with my landing and quickly did a sweep of the immediate surroundings. Seemed I’d crashed right in the middle of a diamond-shaped arena that was thankfully empty, and the lights were merely artificial. Still, I couldn’t stay here.

I quickly made my way to the nearest exit point and then stopped dead. My visor allows me to see worlds in a variety of spectrums – color, infrared, x-ray – and right now, each was telling me that there was no suitable mechanical form to scan as a disguise for some distance.

Well frag. That wasn’t good. There was just no way I could – or was going to – walk around in my protoform. It made me feel far too exposed and vulnerable, and I didn’t like it. The protoform was, after all, nothing more than base metal that the scanned disguise usually covered up.

I wasn’t going to find a disguise just standing here, so I started to walk, keeping to the shadows as much as possible, following Bumblebee’s signal while at the same time keeping a lookout for an alternate form that would suit not only my function and mass, but my taste as well. No way was I going to roll up looking like just another machine.

As I neared the more populated areas, it became a bit trickier to avoid being spotted by the humans. There were more artificial lights here and while they weren't as bright as the ones in the arena, they did decrease the shadowy spots to hide within. Carefully I crouched in the shadow of a large public transport vehicle, hoping the sound of my internal systems whirring and locking wouldn’t give away my position to the two young dark-hued humans conversing in front of me.

My audio receptors tuned into their speech patterns and analysis with the information I’d obtained earlier helped me identify the language as English – or at least a variation of it, heavily filled with words that sounded like they didn’t belong until you looked at the connotations and contexts. I filed the pattern away since I figured I might need it to communicate with the humans at some later stage.

The youths began to walk away from me and soon reached a corner. I waited a beat after they had disappeared from sight, then stirred. Still keeping low, I slunk along the length of the empty transport vehicle. I crouched again near the back end of it and glanced over my shoulder at the way I’d come to see if anyone had noticed me moving. So far so good.

I stood slowly and turned my head to look in front of me again – then froze. A uniformed human stood before me holding a small vessel of brown liquid in one hand. It was still fairly dark where I stood, but he must have seen either my silhouette or my optics, because he simply stood transfixed and looking up at me. For a moment, I did the same. This wasn’t good. I couldn’t be delayed by this human. I had to distract him somehow. I searched frantically through my recently downloaded files for anything that could get me out of this mess.

“What up, homie?”

My vocalizer encoded my message into the English variant I’d just heard. The human dropped his liquid-carrying vessel and hurried away, probably back to where he had come from. He moved quite fast for someone of his girth, but I didn’t have time to ponder the physical ratio of mass and velocity. I had to get out of here and find a disguise before I alerted more humans to my presence. The lower levels proving to risky, I decided to take a higher route.

I lept up and used a light suction in my hands and feet to pull myself up the side of a building all the way to the top. The roof gave me a good opportunity to scan again for a possible disguise. Lowering my visor, I searched the vicinity. Ah, there was something that looked promising. Swiftly, using the tops of the buildings as my pathway, I made my way over to my target.

Letters in artificial light marked the location and as I dropped onto the roof, a few of them winked out. Oops. The impact must have affected their power supply. Oh well, no time to lament. I lept off the edge and landed on the ground below, then looked around for any humans. There were none. Good.

I straightened and walked towards a small display of Earth vehicles all sitting behind a wall of glass. The barrier wasn’t a problem though.

I’m sure the other vehicles there would have made a nice disguise for someone else. They were practical, hardy, but they just weren't good enough for me. They lacked that extra bit of style I needed. That one on the revolving platform however….

“Pontiac Solstice” the inscription read. Well it was soon going to have an alias as “Jazz’s Earth Disguise”.

The sleekness, the smooth curves, I could just imagine the speed and grace I could coax out of those wheels. The color was not exactly what I would have liked – plain silver – but that was a minor glitch in an otherwise perfect piece of machinery. I could probably ask Ratchet to repaint me into something a little more attractive later. Otherwise, this was the embodiment of style and I had to have it.

My trans-scanning beams swept over every micro-fiber of that beauty and parts of my exo-structure started to move accordingly, adapting my body plating into an exact replica. Didn’t take very long at all and soon my armor gleamed silver in the dim light. NOW I was ready to show myself off to everyone.

Leaping off the side of the road, I twisted and folded into my new alternate form and touched down on the tar fully transformed. Gunning my engine, I sped off down the road towards Bumblebee’s signal. Systems protested only briefly before I coaxed them into their maximum output potential. I had to test this alt mode out fully before we got into any serious situations, but so far everything seemed to be working smoothly.

The speed and agility I could command from this was second only to my old Cybertronian form. I could practically fly from road-crest to road-crest. Call the humans what you will, they had certainly done right by this vehicle. It was everything an Autobot like me could have asked for.

I raced along at speeds that would have earned me a couple of beautiful lectures from Optimus, but what he couldn’t see wouldn’t bore me. Besides, who knew when I’d get to drive at these speeds again? Had to make each moment count. Oh, and there was the fact that if I didn’t keep to this speed, I was going to be very late for our little rendezvous.

Not exactly the first impression I wanted to make to the natives.


	3. Meeting the Natives

Thanks to the speed at my disposal, I was relieved to find that I had made up for lost time nicely. I zipped around a few corners effortlessly and after slicing through a puddle – hope that organic liquid didn’t leave stains – I turned sharply and pulled out directly in front of Ironhide and Ratchet, narrowly missing the old warrior’s front bumper, and causing Ratchet’s siren to chirp in alarm.

“JAZZ!” Ironhide bellowed through our private radio frequency. “Are you defective?! What did you think you were doing?!”

“Driving, old timer,” I replied. “Calm down.”

“Calm down?! Why I ought to… you could have caused a serious accident!”

“I would have to agree,” Ratchet said. “That was quite reckless of you. Is your processor glitching? Did you hit your head when you landed?”

“Did you?” I asked him.

“Well… actually yes, I did,” he replied. “The landing site was rather cluttered with debris, organic and otherwise – mostly otherwise.”

Ironhide snorted. “Both of you are glitched.”

“And where did you land that’s put you in such a chipper mood?” Ratchet asked with a hint of sarcasm.

“A large body of water outside some human dwelling,” he grumbled. “Now all that water’s going to accumulate somewhere and before you know it, there’ll be rust.”

“I swear you have a rust complex,” Ratchet said.

“Seventy percent of this planet is covered in a rusting agent!” Ironhide railed. “Anyone would have a rust complex.”

“Oh stop griping. You’re starting to sound like an old clunker, if you aren't one already.”

“Clunker?! I’ll show you clunker…”

“Knock it off!” I said. “We’re here.”

I know Ironhide would have liked to say more, but Optimus had already started to change, which gave us the cue to transform as well. As I did so, I noticed the humans looking at me, and I couldn’t resist throwing in a few moves I’d picked up from one of their break-dancing videos. It felt quite fluid and I made a mental note to look a little deeper into it.

When I finally completed my transformation and straightened, Bumblebee looked over at me and shook his head.

“Show off,” he said via a text message.

“Missed you, too, pal,” I said. “Good job with finding the human though, and you’re gonna have to tell me more about this planet.”

I almost missed Optimus introducing me, I was so glad to see Bumblebee again – alive and well and with a pretty fine alt mode of his own.

“Nice set of wheels, Bee,” I told him. He beamed.

“My first lieutenant, designation: Jazz,” Optimus was saying.

Oops, that was me. Quickly I altered my vocalizer to the speech pattern I’d used before, in order to converse with these two humans.

“What’s crackin’ li’l bitches?” I asked, and I couldn’t resist throwing in a little flip. “This looks like a cool place t’kick it.”

With that, I hopped up onto an old wreck of a machine and lounged back. I couldn’t help myself, I was happy. We were a team again, and we had a possible direct lead to the Allspark. Maybe, just maybe, we had reached the final leg of our long journey and could soon go home.

Then I noticed Bumblebee giving me an incredulous stare.

“What was that just now?” he asked in text.

“I shrugged and grinned. “I picked it up.”

“You already know your guardian, Bumblebee,” Optimus was saying.

I watched in amusement as my little yellow friend launched into a bit of a shuffle, not unlike what I had done, just without the elaborate flips and spins. Ah well, now that we were back together I had all the time in the world to teach him.

 _“Check on the rep, yep, second to none,"_ his radio played.

Chuckling, I sent him a text message. “Show off.”

He looked over at me with that cheeky grin of his. I know it was strange of me to call him ‘little’ given that he was slightly taller than I was, but that’s what he’s always been to me – my little friend. Before my promotion, the two of us had always been a team, going off and exploring or spying out other parts of the planet, studying other planets and life forms and trying to pick up on their lifestyles if they were sentient enough to have them.

Even in battle we were never too far from each other, always watching each other’s backs, protecting each other. Only once were we sent on different missions, and at the end of it, Bumblebee had lost his ability to speak. I was still gonna get Megatron for that, if we ever found him.

At least now he had his radio, which made things a lot easier for all of us when it came to external communication. Previously, I’d taught him to ‘speak’ through clicks and beeps. Now he sent me a sharp sonic pulse to snap me out of my musings.

Optimus was just wrapping up his tale for the humans and I stood up as he told the boy – Sam – that he was now the key to Earth’s survival. Oh, no pressure, I thought as I looked down at him and the female. No pressure at all.

The girl caught my optic then, and smiled. I gave her as polite a smile as I could manage and was relieved when she didn’t scream or go into any sort of hysterics. Bumblebee sent me a cheeky sonic pulse of laughter.

“Still trying to charm females,” he messaged. “I hate to disappoint you, but she’s already taken by the other ‘ladiesman’ here.”

Sam poked his leg. “Something funny? You laughing at me?”

Bumblebee nodded and worked his radio. _“Always look on the bright side of life.”_

“Ha ha, very funny. Look, can you transform now? We have a castle to storm,” Sam replied.

I was obviously missing a reference to something, I figured as I converted to my own alternate form and took up point behind Optimus. I did a quick search as we drove and came up with something called ‘Monty Python’. Still a little puzzled, I opened up a radio channel to Bumblebee and the humans, who were just behind me, and asked them about it. I was met with raucous laughter from the two children and a series of quick beeps from Bumblebee himself.

“Don’t worry, Jazz,” the girl, Mikaela, said. “I think I have the DVD at home. Wait, can you guys watch DVDs?”

“He could just download it off the ‘Net,” Sam said.

 _“Wanted, dead or alive,”_ Bumblebee added.

“Yeah, Sam, that would be illegal,” Mikaela agreed.

In my rear-view scanners I saw her lean forward in her seat to get a better look at me and I flashed my rear blinkers at her playfully, smiling to myself when she grinned.

“You keep oogling him anymore, you’re gonna hurt Bumblebee’s feelings again,” I heard Sam tell her.

“Oh, ‘again’?” I asked Bumblebee silently. “Care to explain that one?”

“She merely advised me to upgrade to this form,” came the text reply.

“Should I ask what you looked like before so I can look it up on the information database?”

“It would be best if you did not.”

I laughed and spoke to the children again. “So what do you humans do for recreation around here?”

Mikaela cut Sam off before the boy could reply. “Oh, the usual stuff – y’know like hang out with your friends, go to the movies, clubbing maybe, or a little bit of shopping.”

“I don’t think Autobots have shopping where they come from, Mikaela,” Sam said. “I mean, can you imagine Bumblebee here trying on the latest pair of Nikes?”

I referenced some of the options Mikaela had spoken of, and the one that intrigued me most was the one where young humans gathered together after sunset for the sole purpose of dancing and socializing.

“Perhaps you can take me clubbing some time, Mikaela,” I suggested. “I’d love t’check it out a li’l more.”

Sam glanced from her to me and back to her again in a little bit of disbelief, and I chuckled to myself in amusement.

Bumblebee flashed his front blinkers at me. “You just did in under a minute what Sam has been trying to do for the past five years or so,” came his message.

“Oh? And what would that be?” I asked. 

“Ask the girl to go out with him.”

Mikaela giggled at Sam’s expression as well. “Sure Jazz, I’d love to go clubbing with you.”

“Whoa now, hang on!” Sam had finally found his vocalizer. “You can't just waltz into a club with an Autobot, it’ll cause a panic.”

“Oh I’m sure we could work something out,” she replied.

“So how did you finally make contact with them?” I asked as the children continued to argue about whether or not I could successfully enter a human establishment.

“Rescued them from Barricade,” he replied.

“You serious? You took on Barricade?”

“And won.” The accompanying sound byte held a considerable amount of pride.

“Damn right you did,” I replied with just as much pride.

“The children disabled Frenzy.” There was a quick sonic pulse of laughter. “Well, Mikaela did. Decapitated him.”

“I’m liking this girl more and more,” I chuckled.

“Just wait till after Sam gives us the glasses before you break the news to him.”

By this point the children had fallen quiet and Sam was now looking out intently through Bumblebee’s window, obviously searching for something. I figured that maybe it was time to take the lead, so I decreased speed and let Bumblebee overtake me, swiveling a rear-view mirror at Mikaela as they passed me and chuckling at the look of pure murder in Sam’s eyes.

“You need to stop living dangerously, Jazz,” Bumblebee sent.


	4. The Witwicky House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spot the Autobot

The Witwicky family dwelling was suitable enough for their social class, I thought as I pulled up in front of their home with the others and waited for instructions from Optimus. A little big for three people, two of whom slept in one room, but perhaps they used the extra rooms as temporary accomodation for visiting kindred. 

“Jazz, you’ve got the best audio-visual range out of all of us,” Optimus said. “I need you to stay here and keep up surveillance over the neighborhood. Alert us if you pick up anything out of the ordinary.”

“You got it, Optimus,” I replied, stopping in a patch of shadow and kicking my engine to idle.

The others turned down a lane that presumably led to the back of the dwelling. Bumblebee flashed his blinkers at me in a sort of ‘see you later’ gesture and I smiled to myself, returning the motion. He seemed happy to be with all of us again and must have missed us as much as we missed him.

I began searching and tapping into some of the audio-visual wavelengths in my immediate range after they’d left. There were several news reports about meteorites being sighted and then disappearing after impact and I couldn’t help but chuckle. I also got my first look at where the others had landed and snorted in a bit of disdain.

Those three had it easy – their Earth disguises practically came to them. They didn’t have to go traipsing through a town in their protoform to find one. Still though, what I eventually ended up with was certainly worth the effort it took to find it.

As the reports began to wrap, there came a mention about a human military installation coming under attack by an unknown assailant elsewhere in a more arid part of the planet – what they called a desert – and I couldn’t help but wonder if the Decepticons were somehow behind that, searching for the location of the Allspark as well.

A slight movement above me interrupted my thoughts and I cast my scanners around to see Optimus and the others standing up and making their way towards the Witwicky house. I almost pitied the boy. Three out of the four of them were just not built for stealth and agility, and I didn’t want to imagine the damage they would wreak just by trying to be silent and keep out of sight.

My audios picked up Sam uttering several curses at them and I laughed to myself, glad at least that I wasn’t a part of that madness. Then again, if I’d been there, I knew how to stay hidden without causing a ruckus. Scouting and sabotage kinda went hand-in-hand, so Bumblebee and I learned how to keep a low profile when we had to.

That, and there were certain advantages to being small, such as not destroying human garden ornaments and getting lubricated on by even smaller canines. I gave a mental shake of my head as I heard Ironhide complain about rust – again. Definitely a complex, that one.

Things settled down then and I turned my full attention back to scanning the neighborhood again. This time, my sensors registered a faint blip some distance away. It was a bit too far to warrant alerting Optimus, but I decided to keep an sensor on it anyway. There was something strange about that signal, and was that a slight Cybertronian undertone I detected?

I shifted on my tyres, wanting to move out and do a little recon and see what was out there, and was just about to radio Optimus with the request when a strong rumble and a high-pitched Cybertronian shriek jolted me halfway into a transformation, my audio receptors nearly shorting themselves out, as the Witwicky home went dark.

Thinking that something had happened – and damn were my audios ringing – that maybe a Decepticon had somehow infiltrated, I quickly headed to the back of the compound just as the entire neighborhood also lost power.

“Is everything alright?” I asked, stepping through some foliage and onto a path that looked suspiciously demolished by certain Cybertronian feet. Then I noticed the state of the rest of the yard and resisted slapping my hand to my head. They’d really done a number this time.

“Oh everything’s fine, Jazz,” Ratchet said as he got to his feet and moved back to the side of the dwelling.

Ironhide snorted and Optimus glared at him.

“Ratchet, point the light!” Optimus ordered, but Sam immediately came to the window and tersely told him to shut it off.

“You’re all going to get him in so much trouble,” I said.

Bumblebee shook his head in dismay.

“What happened, li’l Bee?” I asked in text.

“Long story, Jazz,” he replied. “Short version: Ratchet tripped the power lines.”

I groaned. “Sheesh. Never send a bunch of warriors t’do a spy’s job,” I said, ignoring the black look from Ironhide. “Sam’s not gonna be happy about this, especially when he has to explain it all to the-.”

“Parents!” Optimus exclaimed. “Whoa!” He quickly sprang away from a window. “Quickly, hide!” Then he added in Cybertronian. “And quietly!”

“Where?!” Startled I watched as the others took cover. 

Optimus pushed himself into a corner, standing on his ‘toes’ in order to get the rest of him out of sight. If only he knew how silly he looked. Bumblebee dove under an overhang, trying not to get entangled in the dangling light fixtures. Ratchet and Ironhide pressed themselves against the side of the wall. I was left with pretty much nowhere to go. Damn cowards. An unfamiliar voice was coming to the window.

“Oh no, man!”

I looked around and spotted a small opening cut into the wall just under the window which I figured I could squeeze into – I was going to try anyway and show these amateurs how it was done, Bumblebee not counted of course, I’d taught him centuries ago.

I quicky managed to curl and fold myself into the gap with minimal sound, just in time as the senior Witwicky came to the window. The power came back on at this point and Bumblebee ducked lower. Obviously he didn’t want to share Ratchet’s experience no matter how tingly he said it was. Once the human had gone back inside, I looked over at Ratchet and Ironhide and considered using a human hand-gesture on them that Bumblebee forwarded to me.

“Learned it at the car dealership where Sam bought me,” he’d explained.

I didn’t get a chance to however, since Ironhide chose that exact moment to growl something about wanting to take out the parents. Ratchet surprisingly agreed – had to be all that electricity short-circuiting his CPU – but all they got was a sharp rebuke from Optimus.

Normally I would have commented on the rare occurance of Ratchet and Ironhide actually agreeing on something – such events tended to happen only once a century – but that signal I’d been monitoring, even through all the chaos around me, was getting closer, and there was definitely a hint of Cybertronian technology about it. Autobot or Decepticon I couldn’t still say, but it still unnerved me.

“Optimus, we gotta go,” I said. “I’m pickin’ up a strange signal and it’s headed our way. May or may not be humans, but either way it wouldn’t do us, or Sam, any good to be seen here.”

Optimus nodded. “You heard the mech. Move out!”

“And try not to make a mess doing it,” Bumblebee added as we pulled back from the Witwicky home and stepped onto the street.

“Jazz, you and Bumblebee take up a surveillance position somewhere along the street and try to keep out of sight. Stay close enough to monitor what’s going on, but not too close to draw attention. The three of us will be further away. I want to know the source of that signal.”

“You got it,” I said.

Quickly, all of us transformed and took up positions, and just in time, too, as a convoy of black Earth vehicles stopped outside the Witwicky residence and several humans, also dressed in black, disembarked and headed to the front door. I figured these weren’t regular visitors and from the slight shifts I picked up from Bumblebee, he seemed anxious about the safety of those within.

He nearly bolted to the children when the strange humans escorted them and the parents out a while later, and I suspected only vorns of experience and training made him stay where he was. We watched as the children were bundled into one the vehicles, and the convoy drove off a moment later.

“Jazz, track them,” Optimus’ curt request came through my radio. Uh oh, the big guy was not happy.

“Already on it,” I informed him.

“Good. Work with Bumblebee on this. He knows this place better than any of us. Find a route we can take that’ll cut them off. We have to rescue the children. Roll out!”

Bumblebee didn’t need to be told twice as he shot off in the lead and I pulled up into place behind him, sharing all the information I could obtain about the convoy’s position so he could take us by the fastest route to an interception point. It felt good to be working with him again, just like in the days back on Cybertron when we used to team up on missions. He’d get us in and out safely and I’d make sure the Decepticons’ plans went boom.

“Just like old times, huh, Bee?” I asked.

“Yup. Wouldn’t have asked for a better partner. Hopefully we can pull off another one,” he replied.

“Don’t worry Bee, we will.”


	5. Meet Sector 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Copying Mojo

Bumblebee led us to what he called an industrial park that was just out of town enough that we could transform without causing a panic.

“They’re still about a breem behind us,” I told Optimus, as we all stopped and transformed.

“We can cut them off here,” Bumblebee said in text. “There’s only one road through this place and we’re standing on it.”

“Good work, you two,” Optimus said. “Now I want the four of you to take cover up there.” He pointed to what looked like a bridge. “I don’t want all of us to confront them at once, they may panic and harm the children. Wait for my call.”

“You got it, let’s move guys,” I said and started herding them off towards the bridge.

“Let’s hope I finally get to shoot something,” Ironhide muttered.

“Oh, will you be quiet,” Ratchet scolded. “You and your cannons have done enough for one night.”

“Excuse me? You were the one who destroyed the entire neighborhood’s power supply.”

“Zip it, you two,” I said as we started to climb up the scaffolding. “That’s an order. Any louder and the convoy’ll know we’re here.”

Down below, Optimus concealed himself behind two large cylindrical tanks, and beyond him we could just see the headlights of the convoy. Bumblebee shifted nervously beside me, his optics fixed on the road.

“Easy, Bee,” I said. “We’ll get them back.”

He nodded and gave me a ‘thumbs-up’ sign, then both of us nearly lept out of our plating as a loud crash echoed through the park. I looked back to the road to see most of the convoy scatter as Optimus proceeded to rip the roof off the lead vehicle – the one which the children were in.

“Taking the children was a bad move,” he growled. Yup, he was definitely slagged off now. “Autobots! Relieve them of their weapons.”

From the corner of my optic I noticed Ironhide moving as fast as I’d ever seen him move, with Ratchet hurrying after him – probably to keep him from hurting anyone in his eagerness to shoot something. I grinned deviously to myself as I swung myself down with them and pulled out my shield-gun. I had a way of dis-arming the humans without even touching them, which I knew would annoy the old warrior even more. Either way, those humans had no business brandishing weapons around the children.

“Give me those!” I snapped.

I opened my right hand and activated a medium-strength magnetic pull that sucked all their weapons to me, after which, I promptly dumped them on the ground and finished them off with a couple of blasts from my own weapon.

Ironhide growled something at me about spoiling his fun, while the children questioned the lead human about how he knew of our presence. The man was refusing to co-operate and I could tell Bumblebee was starting to get irritated about the whole thing. So when Sam finally gave him a look, he was more than happy to release a stream of lubricant on the human.

I quickly raised my shield and took a step back. He may have been my best friend, but there was no way in the Pit I wanted his fluids splattering on my paint.

“Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man,” Optimus ordered, though he sounded more amused than angry.

I looked over at Bee as he shrugged. “What was that?”

He grinned at me. “I picked it up.”

Cheeky little… but then, he’d always been that way. The lubricating was new, but we’d had our own share of fun in our younger days, driving the older mechs crazy with our antics. I wasn’t much older than Bee after all, and I needed my fun, too. The whole Allspark mission had taken a lot of that fun out of our lives, slowly sapping it away orn by orn, but maybe now that we were close to resolving the whole matter, there was a chance we could go back to what our lives were before the war.

Perhaps after this, Bumblebee and I could go back to being young and foolish again.

“The humans have called in reinforcements,” Ratchet’s voice broke in through our radios. “I advise making a run for it, I don’t like the look of some of their equipment. We have what we came for, so I see no need to engage them any further.”

“Alright,” Optimus agreed. “Bumblebee, go with the others and try to make a break for it. I’ll take care of the children.”

I sensed Bumblebee hesitate, but there was no time to argue the matter as Optimus gave the order to roll out, and then picked up the children.

“We’ll try and lead the ground vehicles away from you,” I said. “Make them chase us instead and give you a chance to get them to cover.”

That seemed to appease Bumblebee a little bit and Optimus agreed. “Just be careful.”

“Always, you, too.”

We peeled out of there as Optimus took off in the opposite direction. I sort of understood his logic. He was a lot more flexible and agile in his robot form than in vehicle form, and if he happened to be attacked by one of those helicopters – or so they were called – then he could react immediately instead of having to wait for the children to get out so he could transform.

In the meantime, we had our own pursuers to worry about. Several of their vehicles were actually adept at keeping pace with us, and I worried a bit for Ratchet and Ironhide. Their alt modes didn’t look as if they came equipped for high-speed chases, so I had to think of something that would get them away from danger first.

“We have to split up,” I said. “Bee, y’gotta find an exit for Ratch an’ ‘Hide t’take ‘cause there’s no way the two of them are gonna be able to outrun these guys.”

Ironhide was about to protest when Ratchet cut him off.

“Jazz is right. We were not built for speed, and your cannons are useless since we cannot harm humans. Jazz’ we’re going to try and head back into civilization. With our disguises, I think we can lose them amongst the other vehicles, and I doubt they would want to try anything in a highly populated area.”

“There’s an exit coming up on your left,” Bumblebee texted. “It should lead you right back into the heart of town.”

“I see it,” Ironhide said. “We’ll meet up again once we’ve shaken them off. Be careful, you two.”

I flashed my blinkers, then shot off ahead, Bumblebee close behind me. In my rear-view scanners I saw the humans hesitate, then decide to tail the two of us. They probably thought that being smaller, we’d be easier to catch. Oh if only they knew.

“Where are Optimus and the children?” Bumblebee asked.

“Heading for the river,” I said.

“Then I need to get back there,” he messaged.

“Bee, they’ll be fine.”

“I know, but I’m Sam’s guardian. They’re my responsibility Jazz, and I can't just leave them to someone else. You understand, don’t you?”

I knew all too well what he was referring to. Once upon a long time ago, he used to be my responsibility and I remembered having many arguments with Optimus to bend the rules for him. Yeah, I understood perfectly.

“Alright, little Bee,” I said. “I’ll try and distract these guys long enough for you to give them the slip, then try and meet back up with Ratch and ‘Hide before we re-join you and Optimus.”

“Thanks Jazz,” came the reply.

“Anytime, buddy,” I said. “Good luck.”

I spun a perfect 180 and charged back towards the on-coming vehicles. The weapons ports on my hood opened and I shot quick bursts of heated energy at them. It wouldn’t harm the humans, but it would definitely burn out the engines of their vehicles. Those that avoided it had to deal with the liquid nitrogen I streamed over the road. Again, harmless – provided they were wearing their seatbelts.

Strangely, there didn’t seem to be as many vehicles as I’d thought, which meant that I’d either estimated wrong, or they’d gone after one of the others.

“Ratchet! Ironhide! Rendezvous on the double!” I sent through the radio.

“We’re on our way, Jazz,” Ratchet sent back. “The humans seemed to have stopped tailing us.”

“That’s what worries me. Bumblebee went back to help Optimus. They may be in trouble.”

“Let’s hurry then,” Ironhide urged. “They may require aid.”

As I reunited with the two of them, there suddenly came a sonic shriek of distress over my radio that almost made me swerve sharply off the road. The signal was strong enough to nearly short out my audio sensors, and the source of it nearly made my spark fail.

Bumblebee was in trouble.

Ironhide’s engine gave a loud, angry rev. Ratchet’s lights and siren came on, and I let him pass me so he could take the lead and clear a way through.

“Bee, what’s happening?” I sent back.

“Humans attacking… help me… can't fight back… can't harm… taking children…”

His reply was faint and it was only thanks to the strong wavelength receivers I possessed that I was able to pick up his messages at all. It killed me to know that he was alone out there and I wasn’t around to help him. and why the frag wasn’t Optimus doing anything? My sensors indicated he was close by.

“Hang on, Bumblebee! We’re coming! Did they get Optimus, too? Where is he?”

“Don’t know… hurts Jazz… cold… so cold… help….”

Static suddenly filled my audios, chilling my systems. No matter how hard I tried to hail him on the radio after that, I got no reply. I wished at that moment that I could have flown. We didn’t come this far just to lose one of our own again, and certainly not Bumblebee, not when we’d only just got him back!

“Ratchet, we have to hurry,” I all but pleaded.

I could only hope we weren’t too late.


	6. When Jazz is not happy, he makes sure everyone knows.

By the time we reached the bridge I already knew we were too late. The roads were deserted and the only signature I registered besides ours was Optimus. I drifted to a stop between Ratchet and Ironhide and transformed. In the distance, if I strained my audio receptors hard enough, I could still hear the rotor blades of the helicopters.

“Hang back,” I told the other two. “Let me check it out.”

It paid to be a little cautious incase they were using Optimus as bait to lure us into a trap. I swung over the parapet and peered under the bridge in time to see him lower himself from the concrete beams, and followed him as he made his way to the ground.

“Optimus!” I called, but he didn’t look at me. “Are we just gonna stand here and do nothing?”

“There’s no way to rescue Bumblebee without harming the humans,” he replied.

I couldn’t give a frag about the humans. “But it ain’t right!”

“Let them leave.”

I stared at him. What was he saying?! Abandon one of our own? I stared off in the direction the humans had gone, wanting to tear after them and rescue Bumblebee. He probably guessed my intention and gave me a look that just dared me to cross him. I knew better than to do so, of course, but part of me wanted to do just that. 

I held his gaze for a long moment, then cursed and turned away to climb back up to the road while he bent to pick up the glasses. Ratchet placed a hand on my shoulder which I roughly shook off. I didn’t need his sympathy.

“Let me go after them, Optimus,” I tried again when the big guy hoisted himself up. “With my speed I can still catch up to them and try and free Bumblebee and the children. I don’t have to lay a finger on them, I can use my magnetics. Optimus, you know this!”

“I said, let them go, Jazz,” he said sternly.

“But he’s one of ours!” No, I wasn’t gonna let this go so easily. “What happened to never abandoning a fellow Autobot?”

“JAZZ!”

Ironhide caught my optic and shook his head, and every logical circuit in me screamed at me to shut up, but I couldn’t. What good were all our powers and technology and fancy weapons if we couldn’t use them to save a fellow Cybertronian – a friend?! I told Optimus just as much.

“And what about the children?” I flung at him. “Did you ever intend to help them? Or were you just after the glasses?”

I knew I’d over-stepped my bounds when Optimus gave me the blackest glare I’d ever seen on his face. “I said, that’s ENOUGH, Jazz,” he thundered.

But it wasn’t. Before I could say anything more though, Ironhide clamped a large hand over my mouth and physically hauled me away.

Optimus seemed to deflate a little in the quiet that followed, but I was still far too enraged to even attempt rational thinking. I wasn’t Jazz the First Lieutenant at that point, I was more Jazz the academy liaison and team leader – the mech who fought bolt and screw with the Autobot hierarchy for the welfare of smaller mechs – like Bumblebee.

The three older mechs probably realized this which was, I suspected, the only reason why I hadn’t been dumped off the bridge on my head. Besides, I’d always had a reputation of being rather vocal with my superiors.

Optimus, in the meantime, had finished conversing with Ratchet and gave the order to transform and follow him. I did so reluctantly and found myself between Ratchet and Ironhide, who probably thought I planned to bolt off as soon as I had an opening to do it. I couldn’t blame them. I also had a tendency to flout the rules a lot.

… I don’t know how long we drove or where we were driving to. Without Bumblebee or a human to help us, we were a little aimless and disoriented, and unsure of where to go that would give us cover. I could have helped, I suppose, but at that moment I wasn’t feeling exactly charitable to Optimus or anyone else, still being rather angry about leaving Bumblebee and the kids.

“Jazz.” I felt Ironhide nudge my rear bumper. “You’re the only one besides Bumblebee who’s skilled at this reconnaissance work. We need to find a desolate location so we can determine the coordinates of the Allspark. You’ve got the best range out of all of us. Will you help?”

“Did Optimus tell you to ask me?” I asked, a little bitterly, revving my engine.

“Oh, will you cut the slag!” he growled then. “You knew going into this mission that the finding of the Allspark was greater than any one of us. You know that all of us are expendable in the end as long as the Allspark is retrieved.”

“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, and you know as well as I do that we could’ve stopped them. He could’ve sent me after them.”

“He’s trying to do what’s right by our entire race, not just one of us, and he needs you to help him and not make his life more difficult.”

I sighed to myself and thought over Ironhide’s words. Of course I knew how important the Allspark was, but that was my little buddy out there, how was I supposed to just let that slide? I ran through my options. 

On the one hand, I could just continue to be in my stubborn little funk and we could drive around for hours. On the other, maybe the sooner we found those coordinates, the sooner we could go get the Allspark and then look for Bumblebee. All I could hope for at this point was that Sam and Mikaela would keep Bumblebee from harm.

I activated my sensors and scanned around, looking for a place that could hide us long enough to use the glasses and get the location. One of the potential areas that showed up was a large structure I remembered soaring over when we entered Earth’s atmosphere. The Griffith Observatory, it was called, and because of on-going repairs, it was currently off-limits to the general public. It was worth a shot.

“I found us a spot,” I announced to the group as a whole, as I moved out in front of Optimus to take the lead.

They seemed a little surprised that I was helping them after my recent outbursts, but they followed me without questioning where I was leading them to.

… By the time were reached the Observatory, the sun was rising and I knew we wouldn’t have all that much time to spend there before the humans came in to start their work. Still, I was glad to see it. It had been a long time since we had walked in any sort of daylight, and it helped to raise my spirits a little. It had been a long night.

We transformed and made our way to the back of the sturdy building, and climbed to the roof section – not really a hard thing to do. Optimus held the small pair of glasses in his hand.

“Please,” I heard him murmur. “Let this work.”

“Fire it up, Optimus,” I said, as I paced along a ledge, trying to be patient and keep my temper in check.

Beams from his optics shot through the lenses of the glasses and projected a map of the planet where we could all see clearly the location of the Allspark.

“I sense the Decepticons are getting ready to mobilize,” Ratchet said.

Ironhide nodded. “They must know it’s here as well.”

I couldn’t have cared at that moment. Decepticons mattered least of all to me.

“What about Bumblebee?” I asked. “We can't just leave him to die, and become some human experiment!”

“He’ll die in vain if we don’t accomplish our mission,” Optimus snapped, then sobered. “Bumblebee is a brave soldier, this is what he would want.”

Bumblebee would want to live, is what he would want, I thought, but didn’t say it out loud. Optimus was busy giving one of his speeches. Normally I never cared to listen to them. This time, something he said made me pay attention.

I sort of understood then why he didn’t allow me to go after Bee. Someone had to be there to take charge of everything in case it all went to the Pit. Ratchet admonished him, but we all knew there was no arguing with Optimus once he’d made up his mind. I’d already proved that.

“It’s been an honor serving with you all,” he said. “Autobots, roll out!”

He did have a tendency to be a little melodramatic at times.

“We’re rollin’,” I said and lept down from the roof.

As soon as we left the Observatory, we transformed and hit the highway, making for another site that the humans called Hoover Dam.


	7. How Hard Could It Be?

The drive was a long one – nothing but endless stretches of open road for miles – and though the distance sobered my temper, it did nothing to better my mood. Normally with roads like this, I would have loved to spin my tyres a little faster and speed down them, feeling the wind rush through my vents, but currently I was stuck behind Optimus, and he refused to go over the humans’ set speed limits.

I think the others were still a little wary of my temper so I barely talked to any of them. When we did have words, it was usually a discussion about how, once we got the Allspark back, we were going to get it past the Decepticons without alerting them to its – and our – presence.

No one talked about Bumblebee and the children, and I don’t blame them – it would have just set me off again.

Now and then I swerved out of formation, all my circuits and systems flooded with agitation, wanting to do something besides just drive. Bumblebee or the Allspark, I just wanted to achieve something and stop being useless and helpless. It just wasn’t in me to take things lying down. Optimus maybe one for looking at the bigger picture, but my visual sensors were firmly in the here and now.

I veered out again and heard an angry roar behind me as Ironhide charged forward to herd me back into line. He and Ratchet had been taking turns at this ever since I started doing it, and it amused me in some strange, sadistic way, the way they decided who was to go next at ‘youngling herding’.

“Fraggit Jazz!” Ironhide yelled. “Go out of line one more time and I will shoot out your tyres so you’ll have to be towed by Ratchet the rest of the way on your rims!”

Ouch. Cranky wasn’t he? Grudgingly I moved back into place. Optimus had remained surprisingly quiet through all this, which meant he was in serious brood-mode, and woe be on the mech who tried to snap him out of THAT. Did he feel guilty, I wondered, about leaving Bumblebee? All that stuff he’d said before, about this being what Bumblebee would want – did he say it to console us, or himself? Was he trying to convince himself that he’d been right to leave the little guy behind and focus on that bigger picture?

For myself, I had to wonder how Bumblebee himself felt about all this. Was he wondering where we all were right now? Whether we were coming to save him? Would he feel betrayed when we never showed up? Think we abandoned him? I didn’t want him to. I wished there was some way I could let him know that I had at least fought for him.

I gave myself a mental shake. Brooding over so many questions, I was becoming as bad as Optimus. So bad in fact, that I nearly missed the incoming transmission. By the Allspark, this wouldn’t do at all!

“… can you hear me? … Jazz… respond… hear this?”

Immediately I honed in on the signal with the strongest receiver I had. The strangest thing was that it was coming from some distance ahead of us and was on Bumblebee’s channel no less. Hope flared in me. I wanted to believe it so much, but I had to be absolutely sure.

“Who is this?” I sent back.

“It’s Bumblebee, you silly microchip! I have the Allspark and the two children,” came the reply. “We’re under armed escort, heading to Mission City. Megatron’s revived. We could use some serious backup.”

I hated myself. “Prove to me you’re really Bumblebee and not someone using his frequency to trap us.”

There came a soundbyte of annoyance, then, “Back at the Academy we ran through the instructors’ residential hallway in our protoform mode, and Ratchet threatened to program us so that we’d remain that way permanently if we ever tried it again.”

“Bumblebee! It’s you!” I felt like an idiot. “And you have the Allspark!”

“That’s what I told you, slaghead. Where are you?”

I transmitted our coordinates to him. Turned out the humans had taken him right to the Allspark itself, and with Sam’s help, he’d managed to obtain it and it was now resting comfy on his back seat. Little fragger did it in the end.

“You did good, li’l Bee,” I told him.

“Wont be much good if we can't shake Megatron,” he replied. “Now listen – take the next exit you come to and it’ll put you on the highway we’re on in the opposite direction. We’ll cross paths eventually and you can join up with us.”

“Right on it, Bee. Sit tight, and I’ll see ya soon.”

As soon as that conversation ended, I swerved out of formation again, put on a burst of speed and slipped in front of Optimus. The big guy honked in surprise and I could sense Ironhide charging up a cannon for a shot.

“No time to explain, just listen to me!” I yelled over the lines. “Ironhide! Stand down!” I grasped for control. “Listen! Bumblebee’s alive. He has the Allspark and the children, and ‘Cons on his tail. We need to get to them now and keep them safe.”

“How many Decepticons?” Ratchet asked.

“The whole squad,” I replied. “And Megatron’s with them.”

“Follow him!” Optimus snapped. “Jazz, get us there fast!”

“Already on it, Optimus,” I said.

“And tell me everything along the way.”

Well, I was a bot who could multi-task. Optimus could’ve asked me to break-dance on his back while he drove, and I would’ve done it then. I was just glad that my little buddy was okay. We had the Allspark. We had hope again. Sure, we also had a bunch of ‘Cons to deal with, but we had Optimus as well as the humans on our side. They’d managed to keep Megatron contained all this time, surely they had ways to help us now.

“We’re comin’ up on ‘em, Optimus,” I said.

“Get behind me,” he said. “We don’t know how the humans might react to us, and I’m better equipped to take a hit than you.”

He had a point. I dropped back and fell into position behind him again, as the first vehicle came into view. We passed the group in the opposite lane and as soon as the last Earth vehicle went by, Optimus swung around and fell in behind it. I drifted easily into place and took up position, then looked on as Optimus moved aside to let me pass him. I revved my engine in question.

“Guard them well,” was all he said.

That was enough for me. I charged ahead, weaved in between all the military vehicles and pulled up alongside Bumblebee, startling Mikaela who was right by the window.

“Now what’s a pretty thing like you doin’ in a car like that, huh?” I asked.

“Miss me much, huh Jazz,” she said.

“I pined for ya, gorgeous.” I wondered if Sam’s face could get any darker.

“Can we focus on the situation, please!” he said.

“You are evil,” Bumblebee sent me.

“I make life interesting,” I replied. “You like me that way.” He wasn’t angry with me, but I had to let him know. “I wanted to come after you when I heard. I let you get captured in the first place, I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t, Jazz. I knew what I was getting into. You don’t have to blame yourself. Anyway, it’s all over now.”

“Did they hurt you?”

“Let it go. None of it matters anymore.”

The frag it didn’t. If any of those squishies had harmed him, I’d make sure they didn’t touch him again, but if he didn’t want to talk about it then I wasn’t going to push him. He’d tell me in time when there was nothing around I could break. Besides, he was right. What was important was the situation right now. If we couldn’t stop Megatron, we were all slagged.

“Alright, so what’s the plan?” I asked.

“Get to Mission City and keep the Allspark hidden at all costs. Maybe get it out of the vicinity if possible, at least until we’ve stopped the Decepticons.”

“Figures we’d end up fighting ‘Cons at some point,” I said. “Oh well, at least Ironhide’ll be happy. He’s been itching to shoot something.”

It all sounded so easy in theory – we keep the ‘Cons distracted while the humans snuck off with the cube and hid it. I wondered if it’d be just as easy in practice…


	8. He was First Lieutenant now...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and that meant it was now up to him

There was a lot to be scared of, and I knew that if you let that fear get to you, it would cripple you until you wouldn’t know what to do with your own body. The children – Sam especially – were terrified. They were trying not to show it, but all it took was a few simple scans of their vitals to know that this was well out of their comfort zones.

“Sam’s life, up until a few days ago, has been rather sheltered,” Bumblebee informed me. “Mikaela however, has had some life experiences that have hardened her a little more.”

“Always did like the tough femmes,” I said.

“She’s out of your league, Jazz.”

“That a challenge, li’l Bee?”

“No, and I’ll kick your aft for Sam if you try anything that wrecks all my hard work.”

“Oh, so it was you then. Do tell, what did you do?”

“Music from two decades past has its charms. I shall attempt to catch you up on the popular culture of this planet when all this is over.”

I chuckled to myself. “Sounds good t’me. Where should we start?”

“Well, we need to refine that absurd movement you refer to as breakdancing.”

Oh, now he was getting personal. “As opposed to that ridiculous little jig you called a shuffle?” I shot back.

“Perhaps we should ask the children which one they thought was more appealing.”

I did just that and was met with a brief period of silence. Then they started to laugh.

“This is so surreal,” Mikaela said. “We have evil giant alien robots trying to kill us, and you two are worried about who has the cooler dance moves?”

“Well… yeah,” I said.

“I thought the breakdancing was kinda nifty,” she admitted.

 _“Don’t go breakin’ my… don’t go breakin’ my heart!”_ Bumblebee’s speakers sang out.

“I don’t know,” Sam said. “I kinda liked the shuffle. Very Ali-like y’know – the whole ‘sting like a bee’ thing.” He paused for a moment. “Wait, can you sting?”

“He trashed that evil police car pretty good,” Mikaela said.

Several blips sprang up on my sensors then. “Aw frag!”

“What? What’s going on?” Mikaela looked at me nervously.

“Y’know that police car? He’s back, and kinda angry.”

Sam glanced back in alarm. “It’s the same cop. C’mon, block ‘em, block ‘em.”

But it wasn’t Barricade that bothered me – it was the thing behind him. Bonecrusher had a rather nasty rep of having the most unrivalled and unadulterated hate for just about anything, and seriously didn’t give a frag what he did as long as he got to kill something – preferrably Autobots.

Optimus started to drop back, letting Ironhide and Ratchet close ranks as rear-guard. He knew about Bonecrusher, too, so the call came as no surprise to me.

“Jazz, take charge of this and get them to the city. Whatever happens, protect the children and keep the Allspark away from the Decepticons.”

“Y’can count on me, Optimus,” I replied. “Any ‘Cons wanna harm them, they’ll have t’go through me first.”

“Don’t take on more than you can handle, First Lieutenant. I have a feeling this is only a small part of their forces. The rest may already be in the city.”

“Then I guess we’ll see when we get there.”

“My order still stands, Jazz. DO NOT take on Megatron at any peril. I’ll try and get to the city as soon as I can to stop him, but you are not to engage him.”

“By your orders, Optimus,” I said. I couldn’t promise him anything. There was a nagging thought in my processor that kept telling me – what if Optimus didn’t reach the city in time, or worse. I revved my engine to banish the thought. “You be careful.”

“Same goes for you. Prime out.”

I cut the radio with a sigh as I watched him hit the brakes and start to transform. I would have liked to stay and help, especially with Barricade back there as well, but I had the others to take care of now. I opened a general channel as I took up the lead.

“Alright everyone, listen up. I’m in charge while Optimus takes out a few ‘Cons back there, and my job is to get you lot to the city and keep all of you relatively whole till we can secure the Allspark and Optimus joins us.”

I saw Bumblebee behind me, and the children looking really scared now. I wanted to cheer them up again, but the time for playing was over. I was First Lieutenant Jazz now, and my main priority was to keep them all alive.

“Whatever happens back there, we keep going. Don’t stop till we reach the city.”

I heard Mikaela exclaim and soon after that came a loud explosion. I quickly cast my scanners back, in time to see Bonecrusher slam into Optimus and the two of them tumble over the edge of the highway. It took everything I had not to turn right back around and go help him.

“Ironhide, hold!” I shouted over our channel as I noticed him start to fall back. “Keep driving and stay in formation, that’s an order!” Then I added. “He’ll be fine, we gotta trust him.”

The old mech growled something in Cybertronian, but stayed with us.

By the Allspark, we couldn’t reach that city soon enough.

I led them right into the heart of the place. With so many buildings around, the fliers would be a little cautious about how they flew, and Blackout wouldn’t be so liberal with his pulse attack if he didn’t want to bring a structure down on himself – or so I hoped. Once we stopped, now came the hard part.

“Ratchet, you’re with me. We’re gonna scout this city for potential locations to either hide the Allspark or sneak it out of here,” I said. “Bumblebee, stay here, protect the Allspark and keep the kids safe. Ironhide, protect them, all of them. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

With that, Ratchet and I sped off in different directions. I hoped the human military would do their own part and try to get the place evacuated while finding a way to get some back-up.

I raced down streets and around corners, using GPS as a guide. The virus may have crippled the humans’ communications, but as they said, it would be a cold day in hell before one of Frenzy’s primitive viruses could take down my systems or hinder them from breaking through. I couldn’t afford the time to override it now though. The humans would just have to innovate.

Time was something we were short on, if we hadn’t run out already. That jet sounded rather familiar.

“Jazz! Starscream attacked the group and we have allies down. We’ve got to get back there!” Ratchet hailed.

Frag. Frag! I spun back around and raced to the group, hoping that no one had died yet. “I’m on my way now. How did he get past undetected?”

“The humans thought he was one of theirs. By the time Ironhide picked up his signature, he’d attacked. They only had enough time to put up a flimsy shielding.”

I screeched to a stop where I’d left the others. There was a flaming truck in the middle of the road and debris everywhere. Ironhide was slowly getting to his feet and the humans crawling out from their cover, but I ignored all of that. All I could see was that yellow form crawling towards me and it just immobilized me.

Again, I hadn’t been there for him, and again he’d gotten hurt because of it. I wanted to move, wanted to transform and help him, but it felt like I was frozen in place. Sam pushed me back and I moved. I’d let him down. What good was I if I couldn’t even protect my best friend?

“You can't be in two places at once, Jazz,” his message read. “I’ll be fine. Don’t lose it. We still need you in charge while Prime’s not here.”

I jumped as a loud explosion went off quite nearby.

“Brawl’s here,” he texted. “You have to go.”

“I don’t want to leave you like this.”

“If you don’t go, we’re all as good as dead. You have to protect the humans – they’re the only ones standing between the Decepticons and the Allspark. If they fall, we’ll be severely outnumbered.”

“I’m sorry, little Bee.”

“It’s alright. Now go kick some ‘Con skidplate… and make it good.”

“Y’got it.”

I pulled away and left the scene, working my way through the streets as I formed a plan in my head.

“Ironhide, distract him from the front, but don’t get too close, and don’t leave Bee and the kids unprotected. Ratchet, come in from the back. I’m gonna blindside him from the side.”

Brawl’s broad side came into view and as soon as I was close enough, I transformed and jumped, yanking his gun-barrel away as he tried to blast a group of human soldiers.

“C’mon, Decepticon punk!”

I taunted him into a transformation and swung onto his back as he got to his full height, kicking off one of his shoulder-mounted launchers. I took a second to check on Ratchet’s position. It cost me. The hulking brute managed to grab an arm and flung me into a nearby building. The forcefield came on, but it still hurt like a fragger when I hit.

I would have liked the luxury of lying there and letting self-repair patch me up, but I’ve never been one to lie back and watch. I wanted to be right in the middle of the party. Self-repair would just have to multi-task.

I got to my feet and started to run back, letting my wheels drop as I pulled out my weapon and raised the shield. Sliding low, I fired off a few shots, then skidded to a halt as Ratchet came charging in with his buzzsaw, jumped, twisted, swung, and landed back on his feet. A second later, one of Brawl’s arms dropped. I stared, he looked smug.

“You’ll give Ironhide a run for his money, yet,” I said.

“How do you think I keep him quiet in my med bay?”

A few more shots by us and the humans, and Brawl was out for the count, but before we could do any celebrating, a very familiar shadow flew over us.

Megatron was here.


	9. It was not in vain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megatron

I looked at Ratchet. No two ways about it, with Megatron here and Optimus still missing we were all – as the humans so nicely put it – sitting ducks. If we didn’t do something, he’d blow us all to the Pit and Earth would be doomed. The soldiers, the children, Bumblebee – they’d all be killed if no one did anything to stall Megatron now and keep his attention away from the Allspark; and there was no way in the Pit I was letting that monster near my little buddy again. Ratchet looked back at me.

“Jazz, don’t you even think it!” he snapped in Cybertronian. “Prime ordered us not to face him!”

“Well Optimus ain’t here now, is he?! You may as well just hand Megatron the Allspark then,” I shot back.

“We’ll find another way to stall him till Prime arrives.”

“We don’t even know if he’s functional. We’re gonna have to assume the worst, ‘cause we’re out of time.”

“He’ll kill you, Jazz.”

“Then find a way to bring me back! For now, just get Bee, the kids and the Allspark outta here!”

“Jazz…”

“That’s an order! Go, now! Cover the soldiers and fall back immediately!” At the same time I shouted in English to the humans. “It’s Megatron, retreat! Move!”

“Fall back!” Ratchet yelled, herding the humans away.

I was glad he finally gave in. If I’d spent any longer trying to convince him, I don’t think I could have gone through with it. Even now I fought the urge to turn and run with them. Optimus was right, he would destroy me, but I had to try anyway.

I glanced back to see how the retreat was faring, and when I looked around again Megatron was there – right in front of me. Well, no turning back now, it was all or nothing. I brought my gun up and fired, hoping I nailed a few areas that would give him trouble later, even if I couldn’t bring him down, but the fragger had that fusion cannon of his and that sucker packed a punch.

Next thing I knew I was flying through the air, and hit the dirt face-first a few feet away. The force-field had barely held, protecting vitals, paint-job be damned. I could feel my armor melting on me as I tried to get up, fusing to various parts underneath, and the pain was unbelievable. My survival instincts screamed at me to stay down and play dead and then maybe he’d leave me alone, but since when had I taken survival into this crazy one-mech stalling mission? I couldn’t fall, not yet anyway. Too many were counting on me.

So this was it, then…

I kept them alive, Optimus, the rest is up to you, now. Wherever you are, you’d better get here fast. I’m not gonna last much longer and someone’s gotta protect them when I’m gone. I still think you were wrong for leaving Bee back on the bridge, and you’re still an idiot if you think sacrificing yourself is gonna stop Megatron – that’s for mechs like me to do… But you’ve been a good leader overall. Don’t take my death personally, s’not your fault. I did what had to be done. Been an honor serving you, sir.

Don’t beat yourself up about this Ratchet. I gave you an order, and I out-rank you. I know I said find a way to bring me back, but don’t work yourself into the ground over it. Fix the ones you can save first – like Bee, he needs you more. Take good care of ‘em all for me, Doc; don’t let ‘em mourn too much. They gotta move on, and you gotta help ‘em, heal ‘em. I know you’re tougher than you look, it’s time they realized it, too. Thanks for all those patch-jobs. I’m sorry I had to be the one you couldn’t save.

Ironhide, you gave me so many invaluable lessons back at the Academy that I know I’d have never learned anywhere else, like there’s nothing stupid about taking hits for the ones you care about. I didn’t mean to be such a hellion back then. No… that’s not true – I did; and here I am about to put you through slag again, but I know you’ll be strong. You have to be strong. They’ll need you when I’m gone. Ratch’ll need you to tell him to take a break, Bee’ll need you to help him get his strength back, and Optimus… he’ll need you to club him over the head and tell him what happened to me was not his fault. I chose this, make him see that. Guard them well, old friend.

Sam, Mikaela, I’m sorry you wont get to know me. I’m more sorry that I wont get to know you or your beautiful planet. We involved you in our war and wrecked your world. I can only promise that if the Decepticons are defeated, the others will find a way to help you out. Sorry fer callin’ ya bitches back there. Take care of Bumblebee for me – he’s gonna need some good friends to help him through what’s coming next.

I’m sorry, Bumblebee. Looks like I’m letting you down again. Please don’t hate me for doing this, it’s the only way I know to keep you safe. You were my responsibility, I hope you understand. I know this is going to be hard for you, and I wont ask you not to mourn, but don’t overdo it. I’m all for living life to the fullest – you do that for me now. Go do all the things I would do and even the stuff I wouldn’t. Y’ain’t alone, li’l Bee, you’ve got the kids now. Throw a party for me, play music loud enough for Ironhide to threaten you with dismemberment, and ask the kids to teach you to dance. You’re gonna be fine, buddy. I’m so proud of you.

“Jazz!”

I’d somehow managed to get back on my feet again while I ran all those goodbyes through my processor and stored them in my memory for Ratchet to recover later. Ratchet himself was now much farther down the street, and was staring horrified at my condition, even as Megatron loomed towards me.

“Just GO!” I snarled. “Save the kids!”

It must have been hard for him to do what he did. I can't even begin to imagine the conflict that had to be going on in his head – his logical side knowing he had others to protect versus his medic’s oath to heal. In the end though, logic won out and he fled. Good. Optimus couldn’t blame me for getting anyone killed. I set my feet – for all the good it would do – and fired at Megatron, trying again to strike between his armor plating. I think it just pissed him off.

“Out of my way, insect,” he growled.

Oh, now that was just low. “Insect, eh? Taken a look at y’self lately, huh ugly? What chewed you up and spat ya out, bitch?”

He swiped at me and I dodged on instinct, but that cursed pain must have dulled my reflexes somehow because I moved a second too late. He missed knocking my head from my shoulders, but those pit-spawned claws caught me across the shoulder and chest, leaving some pretty deep furrows. I lashed back with my own clawed hands at the same time and left a few gouges that squirted burning fluid from them.

I dropped to a knee. “That the best ya got?! Pathetic! I’m still standin’, c’mon!”

He ignored me and started towards the others again. No! I couldn’t allow that. I had to stall him as long as I could, but short of jumping on his back and swatting him about the head… wait a tic, I still had my magnetics! It would drain the slag out of me, but what the frag did I care?! 

I picked up the nearest wrecked car and hurled it at him. It hit him behind the knees and he stumbled. He turned around with a snarl as I staggered back up to both feet.

“See? Still standin’, ya crazy punk!” 

I tossed another car at him that he sliced in half, and a few more for good measure that went the same way. I thought about using a bigger vehicle, but knew that would drain too much from me, and I had to keep going for as long as possible. Another pulse from his cannon just missed me and the force-field flickered. It couldn’t keep taking this kind of abuse.

His mace struck me square in the torso and sent me flying back, and it was only the failing force-field and my magnetics that saved me from deactivation right there. As I hit the ground again, I managed to pick up a rather large van and let it fly at him, actually connecting with his chest.

My body called me seven different kinds of idiot as I crawled towards him. He kept looking back in the direction of the others and it scared me more than anything he could do to me. When he tried to turn I caught him in a magnetic field, shutting down all other unneeded systems to direct power to the net, but I knew even that wouldn’t hold forever. He was just too big, and I, too weak. I was nothing more than a turbofly to him.

But even a turbofly had a sting.

“Tell me why I should put you out of your misery, insect,” he growled. “Answer me well and maybe I’ll even make it painless.” He resumed stalking towards me, pushing against the field.

“I’m an insect?” I couldn’t help myself. “I ain’t the one who got stuck in the ice and experimented on by a buncha organics no bigger than m’finger.” I think humans called it gallows humor. “For over a century, no less, not countin’ the time ya spent nappin’. Some ‘Con overlord you turned out t’be.” Though it probably wasn’t too smart of me t’slag ‘im off. “Punk.” I blamed it on too many blows to the CPU.

He charged. I had just enough juice left in my magnetics to swing myself over and onto his back. Caution be fragged, I was beyond it now. I pounded on his armor in the hopes that I could break through enough to rip out a few wires and cables before he killed me. He transformed and took to the air, and I clung on as he tried to shake me off. I had to stay on, the others weren’t ready yet.

Then, somewhere beyond the sound of Megatron’s roar, and the noise of the chaos on the streets, my scanners picked up a blip – a very familiar blip. About time he got here. I smiled a little. This could all end now.

That moment of distraction was all Megatron needed to toss me off his back. I slammed into a building just as his foot came down on me. The force-field shattered and I could feel lines and systems rupturing. I used the last remaining dredges of my magnetic field to repel that chunk of metal off me and crawl out, clawing my way up his leg.

“Come here, cretin,” he snarled and grabbed me by my leg.

I fired the last of my weapons’ rounds at him. “You want a piece of me?!” I yelled. “You wanna piece?!”

Static started making my vision hazy. I couldn’t make out what was in front of me, let alone what he was saying. The blip grew stronger, even as I felt cables snap and metal buckle and rip along my torso. The pain was off the charts, but yet I choked out a laugh as I said to him in Cybertronian.

“You stupid fragger. You’ll burn in the Pit before the day is over, bitch… And an insect will send you there.”

The others would live, I could feel it in my spark. Optimus was almost here, which meant I could let go now. They would live, and I could rest peacefully knowing that. 

It was over… 

I was over.


	10. Epilogue

The pain stops just like that. I’m not sure where I am, but it feels comfortable. It feels like I’m floating and yet solid in a way though I can't see anything – nothing with my optics anyway. I’m not too sure what to make of all this. I mean, the last thing I remember was dying. I sense a shift and then I hear voices – distant voices as if carried to me on a wind from a world away… but there’s no wind here. None that I can feel at least.  
  
 _“One shall stand, one shall fall.”  
  
“No Sam!”  
  
“You left me no choice.”  
  
“We couldn’t save him.”  
  
“Lost a good comrade.”  
  
“I wish to stay with the boy.”  
  
“No sacrifice, no victory.”  
  
“I ordered him not to do it, and then I left him with no other choice. I was too late. Failed him.”_  
  
No, I say, you didn’t fail me. I made that choice on my own. I knew what I was doing.  
  
 _“I’ve fixed his structural damage, but without his spark, I can't bring him back.”  
  
“Then you’ve done all you can. Get some rest, Ratchet. There’s still Bumblebee who needs you, and Prime. Jazz is dead, leave him be.”  
  
“I saved his memory component.”  
  
“We’ll listen to it later. Rest first.”_  
  
I only wish I could make him hear me. I don’t think you’re meant to save me this time. I hear one of the children crying – Mikaela I think – and I feel a sense of pity for them. Please don’t cry. If only there was some way I could comfort them. I hear a sad keening and know it’s Bumblebee. There’s a tingle that runs over my consciousness – the closest thing to pain on this level I suppose – when I hear it.  
  
I want to tell them I’m alright here, please don’t worry about me. You all have your own lives to continue living, so don’t let what I did be for nothing, go live!  
  
“They will heal with time.”  
  
That voice is new. I hear it not only from the outside, but within me as well. It seems familiar, and yet I don’t think I’ve heard it anywhere else before.  
  
“Who are you?” I ask. “I didn’t think there was anyone else around here.”  
  
“I am everywhere… and you know me.”  
  
I hear Sam’s voice.  
  
 _“Bumblebee, it’ll be okay.”  
  
“He was my best friend, Sam.”  
  
“Yeah, and it’s okay to miss him, but you heard what he said. He wants you to celebrate his life, not mourn his death.”  
  
“I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”  
  
“Not now maybe, but you will be.”_  
  
The voices, everything, start to fade. I feel my consciousness start to go with it, but I don’t want to go yet. I want to make sure they’ll all still be okay when I’m gone. That’s why I did this in the first place, so that they’ll have a second chance to make things right.  
  
“It’s up to them now, Autobot Jazz. Your task is finished.”  
  
“I’m not leaving until I know they’ll be alright.”  
  
“That is also not up to you to decide.”  
  
I can still hear Ironhide’s cannons booming in the distance. He’s shooting at something and I want to know what it is. Did I leave too soon? What if there are others still out there? They need me.  
  
I hear something like a sigh.  
  
“You’re a stubborn one aren't you?”  
  
“You bet your insubstantial aft I am.”  
  
“But the path you chose cannot be reversed by me. You can't walk on that plane now.”  
  
“Just tell me they’ll be okay, and I’ll shut it an’ go with ya.”  
  
“Neither can they be forced onto a particular train of thought. That is why you have free will, to make your own choices.”  
  
“I could choose to stay here and keep an optic on ‘em.”  
  
“Only, once you die, that choice is not longer up to you, or to me. This place is one of transition. I am here to guide you on. no one can stay here however much they may want to.”  
  
I’m barely listening, instead, trying to focus on Ironhide. Damn my insatiable curiosity, but I have to know just what the frag is going on.  
  
 _“Ironhide, enough. You’re wearing out your cannons.”  
  
“I should have hauled that piece of scrap away by the horns on his head, Ratchet!”  
  
“I know, old friend. I should have done the same, but it’s too late now. Leave him be.”  
  
“It should have been me. He was still young!”  
  
“Don’t you DARE go down that road. I get enough of the self-pity from Prime.”  
  
“I thought I beat it out of him.”  
  
“Not enough apparently. He still thinks he got there too late to save Jazz.”  
  
“Fine, I’ll go beat some more out of him. Wanna help?”  
  
“Gladly. Someone needs to make sure you do it right.”_  
  
I feel the other presence growing a little impatient. “Is that enough for you?”  
  
“One more?”  
  
“The others were not half as troublesome as you.”  
  
“Not my fault. It’s how you made me.”  
  
“Don’t make me regret it.”  
  
“You’re a supreme being, you should be more patient than this.”  
  
“Too much vocalizer, too.”  
  
“Again, your fault, not mine.”  
  
“One more, and then we leave.”  
  
“Deal. Y’take requests?”  
  
I hear a bit of a growl before it’s drowned out by Bee’s and the children’s voices. Ah yes, this is what I want to hear. Bee’s voice sounds slightly stronger now. It’s good he’s healing. I realize I’m going to miss that little yellow bot. All the slag we did together and the pranks we played. I hope he keeps those memories even if I may lose them after this.  
  
 _“We buried Jazz on the hilltop,”_ Mikaela was saying. _“Since he said he quite liked Earth and all, we followed human custom.”  
  
“That is good. I think he would like that better than being blasted into space,”_Bumblebee replies.  
  
Damn right I would. I’m tired of drifting in space.  
  
 _“We’re lucky Secretary Keller managed to pull some strings in the government and let us claim Jazz’s body,”_ I hear Optimus say. _“Or I fear he would have been disposed of like the Decepticons.”  
  
“But you wouldn’t have allowed that!”_Sam says.  
  
 _“I would have opposed it very strongly.”  
  
“Who came?”_Bee asks quietly.  
  
 _“Everyone who knew about you guys,”_ Mikaela replies. _“He got full military honors eventhough we had to keep it low-key.” Her voice shakes a bit. “He got this, too… here, you should keep it.”  
  
“I don’t understand.”  
  
“It’s another Earth custom,”_Sam explains. _“Well, military custom. Jazz died in the line of duty, to protect this world from hostile forces. The flag says that we respect that and honor what he did.”_  
  
“You were closest to him. It’s only right you keep it, Bumblebee.”  
  
“Yes, sir. I’ll keep it safe.”  
  
I hear him sigh, but not as heavily as the last time.  
  
And again the voices start to fade. Guess I can't really ask for anymore. Don’t want to slag off a higher being and all that, ‘cause I really don’t want to be dumped where Megatron and the lot ended up. So I start to let myself drift.  
  
“Finally ready to go?” the voice asks me.  
  
“Yeah. I’ll just have to trust that they’ll all be okay.”  
  
“They managed before you came to them, they’ll manage now that you are no more.”  
  
“Not one to fluff an ego, are you?”  
  
“Not particularly.”  
  
“So, where’re we going?”  
  
“Somewhere you can rest after all your toils.”  
  
“They have free wax-jobs there?”  
  
“Now I understand why some of your comrades have threatened to send you to me before your time.”  
  
“They love me, really.”  
  
“So I have noticed.”  
  
“Love ‘em all, too.”  
  
“I am aware. Else you would not have chosen to make that ultimate sacrifice for them.”  
  
I pause for a moment to let that digest, but only for a moment.  
  
“So… where’re we going?”  
  
“To put it quite simply, Autobot Jazz, a divine realm. Humans would call it Heaven, Cybertronians, the Well of Allsparks.”  
  
“Oh… sounds nice. What’s in Heaven?”  
  
“Peace.”  
  
Somehow, I can feel it as he says it. I know I’ve crossed into something that… I can't explain. It just feels as if there’s nothing wrong anymore. No more worrying, or pain, or fear. Just a soothing, healing calm.  
  
“I think I like that,” I say.  
  
“I thought you would, for this is where your journey ends.”  
  
“Thanks, Primus.”  
  
“Rest in peace, Autobot Jazz.”  
  
  
~END.

**Author's Note:**

> Written not long after the movie hit the cinemas, July 2007, I was thrilled originally when I heard Jazz was going to be in the Live Action movie. At the time we didn't know we'd get a sequel, so yes, I was happy. Then he came on screen, spoke a few lines, got killed by Megatron and I was just... WTF just happened?!
> 
> No. Much as I did like movie 1, I was not happy about his (lack of) screen time, and I wanted nothing more than to give him a bit more development. So I wrote this...
> 
> Also, as the original date of writing states, this was long before DOTM came into being and retconned the moon into the story arc. Just go with it that none of them ventured to the dark side of the moon because they were too busy watching Earth for Bumblebee's signal.


End file.
